4F-031-001 DAPOL 6 wheel SR "United Dairies" milk tanker

In the nineteenth century, milk was supplied to urban areas mainly by cows kept in urban herds even in the largest metropolitan areas such as London. These cows were kept in cramped, unsanitary conditions and in 1865 a cow plague swept London resulting in the extermination of all urban herds. Express Dairies grew from this moment on and was instrumental in bringing in milk from the country into the towns and cities.

The founder and chairman of Express Dairies, George Barham invented the milk churn which was the principal way of transporting milk until the 1930s at which time the growing demand and the advancement of sheet metal rolling techniques lead to the development of cylindrical bulk handling milk tanks. The first milk tanks had four wheels, but were found to be unstable at speed. However, a six wheel derivative was found to be very suitable and most of the earlier milk tankers were eventually converted.